Policies not Politicians

When I vote in the upcoming election, I wont be voting for John Howard. I wont be voting for Kevin Rudd. I wont be voting for Bob Brown. I will be voting for the Liberal party, or the Labour party, or the Greens. As much as the media spits the Howard vs Rudd angle at us, to me it’s about the parties as a whole. It’s about policies, not politicians.

My decision will not be informed by grandstanding, stunts or slander on an individual. My decision will be based entirely on the policies of each party, and how strongly I agree or disagree with them. This is where the Greens have got it right – on their website you can find a handy list of all their major policies. Go through it and see if you agree with them – or not – and then you can easily decide if the Greens are for you. I gave up trying to find a list of policies on both Liberal and Labour’s websites after about five minutes of navigational nightmare.

Personally I will be voting for the Greens, even though I strongly disagree with their rather limiting policies on genetic research. Curiously, their policies on human genetic research are conspicuously absent while their policies on plant and animal research are rather prominent. Hmmm. Still, the rest of their policies on social and environmental reform I like, so they’ll be getting my vote.

Of course then there’s always the Senator Online party, they have no policies at all. They will simply put each proposed senate bill on their website, and let the public vote aye or nay. However the public votes, they will vote, essentially turning every bill into a referendum. Sounds like democracy to me!